EUROPA
Radio script

CLIMATE CHANGE STUDENTS

The Svalbard archipelago lies some 1,000 kilometres south of the North Pole. Here a group of European students studies the effects of climate change.
The Ben and Jerry Climate Change College was started by the well-known American ice-cream maker, the World Wide Nature Fund and Dutch polar explorer Mark Cornelissen.

MARK CORNELISSEN, polar explorer
"We will need people that are equipped and motivated to tackle climate change. That is why we started the climate change college."

This group of students was selected from hundreds of applicants. They are trained to become so-called Climate Change Ambassadors and should start energy-saving campaigns in their own countries.

Teacher Appy Sluijs points to a period millions of years ago when a natural surge of CO2 created a tropical climate in the Arctic.

To back up Sluijs' theory, the students travel deep into a mine in Svalbard's largest island, Spitsbergen, to look at fossil footprints of a hippopotamus-like creature.

APPY SLUIJS, scientist
"These beasts were walking around here and they were eating plants and stuff and there were rivers floating through this landscape. So it was some kind of rain forest situation. There are actually also fossils of crocodiles
from the similar time period. (…) It implies that if you pump a lot of CO2 into the atmosphere it will become warmer. And actually the CO2 levels in the time period that we see here are similar to the ones we are approaching in the next century."

The threat of global warning is immediate for polar bears that depend on ice to hunt for seals. Some 3,000 polar bears roam the wilderness of Svalbard, outnumbering human inhabitants. But according to polar bear expert Jon Aars, their number could fall dramatically as the ice melts.

JON AARS, polar bear expert
"If climate change will be as profound as people think, as scientist think, it is going to have a huge impact on polar bears. It is difficult to say whether or not they could go extinct, but they are going to be heavily reduced in numbers."

The students visit a glacier where ice stalactites hang from the roof of a frozen tunnel. Formed over thousands of years, these delicate formations could be lost for ever if temperatures continue to rise.

Student Anne Leeflang from The Netherlands and Rob Bell from Great Britain explain what they learn from the college.

ANNE LEEFLANG, student
"I saw how beautiful the earth is, it is really very special. We went to a lot of lectures and it became clear to me how many sides the topic Climate Change has, from how many angles you can look at it, and how difficult of a problem it is."

ROB BELL, student
"The real big thing I learned from the college is the communication aspect about climate change. There is a real need to make that transition between the hard science of climate change and what we can do about it ourselves, something really tangible what people can do about it in their own home."

After school, students enjoy the snow. With temperatures rising, this frozen landscape may become something of the past.